Front-Yard Parking a Little Closer : Lawndale Officials Buck Warning of ‘Dog Patch’ Image

In spite of warnings that Lawndale will resemble Li’l Abner’s hillbilly hometown, “Dog Patch,” if front-yard parking is permitted, the City Council has taken a stand in favor of it.

The council voted 3 to 2 Thursday to ask the Planning Commission to review a proposed ordinance loosening city restrictions on front-yard parking.

Opinion on the ordinance is vehemently divided in Lawndale, with some residents, such as Randy Brendia, raising the specter of “Dog Patch” and warning that front-yard parking could hurt local property values.

A former Midwesterner, he noted that front-yard parking in East St. Louis, Ill., created “a trashy appearance” that led to substantially lower property values than in the neighboring community of St. Louis, Mo.

Some Favor Plan

“This ordinance is an attack on every single person’s property values in this city,” Brendia said.

But other residents favor the plan. Several, including Steve Mino, have lobbied loudly for an ordinance that would let them widen their driveways to provide an extra parking space on the front lawn. Front-yard parking is needed for older properties that do not provide adequate parking, Mino said.

In March, four council members, including Mayor Sarann Kruse, said they would vote in favor of such an ordinance. It would help solve the city’s chronic parking shortage by getting residents’ cars onto their own properties and freeing parking spaces on the street, the council majority said.

At Thursday’s meeting, three of the four council members held to that view. But Kruse reversed herself, saying that when news of the proposed ordinance was published in The Times a few weeks ago, she received more than 200 calls from residents who object to the plan.

Adopted in 1984

The city’s current restrictions against front-yard parking were adopted by the council in 1984. Then-Councilman Jim Ramsey hailed the legislation as a way to “get rid of the Billy Goat Acres Syndrome” in Lawndale.

Planners generally view front-yard parking as an eyesore in residential neighborhoods, said Mark Winogrond, a former Lawndale planning director who now heads West Hollywood’s Planning Department.

Council opinion has shifted since the 1984 regulations were adopted.

On Thursday, council members Larry Rudolph, Harold E. Hofmann and Carol Norman voted to send the ordinance allowing front-yard parking to the Planning Commission for review.

They directed that front-yard parking spaces should be permitted alongside driveways rather than parallel to the street, as the staff had proposed.

Kruse voted against the ordinance Thursday, as did Councilman Dan McKenzie, a longtime opponent of lawn parking.